Located in Arathi Highlands, Arathi Basin is a fast and exciting battleground. The Basin itself is rich with resources and coveted by both the Horde and the Alliance. The Forsaken Defilers and the League of Arathor have arrived at Arathi Basin to wage war over these natural resources and claim them on behalf of their respective sides. It is similar to "King of the Hill," "Conquest," or "Domination" modes in other games.

Overview

The goal is to control locations on the map ("Resource Nodes"). While a node is controlled, it generates resources for your side, and the first side to gain 1,600 resources wins the contest. Prior to Patch 3.2, 2,000 resources were required for victory.

Basic Rules

A node only earns resources when it is captured (see below). With the exception of strategic value, there is no difference between the nodes in terms of resource production.

The rate of resource accumulation increases non-linearly as more nodes are captured. That is, if a side owns 2 nodes, it will not accumulate resources 2x as fast as when it only has 1 node. See the Strategy section below for more info.

Arathi Basin is banded by level, just like Warsong Gulch. The minimum level to join is 10, and different instances will spawn in brackets covering 5 levels each.

Entering Arathi Basin Battleground

The entrances to Arathi Basin are located in the Arathi Highlands zone.

Winning Arathi Basin

Strategy and Tactics

Accumulating Resources

Resources accumulate at the rates shown in the table below.

NodesCaptured

ResourcesPer Tick

Tick Length(sec)

ResourcesPer sec

1

10

12

0.8

2

10

9

1.1

3

10

6

1.7

4

10

3

3.3

5

30

1

30.0

So if your team has three nodes, their team has two nodes, and they lead 1400 to 1300, you can still win if no nodes change hands. But if your team is at 1200 you cannot win unless you gain control of four nodes.

Honor Rewards

The game awards bonus honor to everyone on your side of the match for reaching certain goals. Those goals are:

Honor for lower level matches scales down from the amounts given. Other scored events are not granted honor. These include: killing blows, assaulting a node, capturing a node, and defending a node. Honor is awarded for honorable kills as normal.

Losing a match gives you less bonus honor depending on how many resources your side managed to collect before the loss. You will still accumulate some honor from honorable kills. You will receive 1 Arathi Basin Mark of Honor at the end of a loss.

The total honor for the winning team on the holiday weekend is 200. The losing team only earns honor for resources collected; there is no additional bonus for a loss on the holiday weekend.

Quests

There are a number of quests involving fighting in Arathi Basin, some of which need reputation with the battleground faction. You can get them from one of the NPCs near the battleground entrances in Hammerfall or Refuge Pointe.

As of the 2.3 patch, there is a daily quest available requiring a win in one random battleground, which awards experience, honor and coin. The AB version of this quest is [70P] Call to Arms: Arathi Basin.

Rewards

Arathi Basin items are available by spending honor accumulated. The Alliance vendor for these items is Samuel Hawke<League of Arathor Supply Officer> near the Alliance Arathi Basin battleground entrance in Arathi Highlands. The Horde vendor for these items is Rutherford Twing<Defilers Supply Officer> outside the Horde Arathi Basin battleground entrance in Hammerfall in Arathi Highlands.

Though some of the Arathor and Defiler factions items have different names and artwork, equivalent items' bonuses and equip effects are identical. Highlander's items are Arathor items.

The bulk of the items are belts, boots, and shoulders tailored to various classes. More powerful versions of some items can be purchased as you gain levels, allowing higher level players to receive faction rewards with better equipment bonuses. However, the exalted rewards are only available at level 60.

See Honor rewards for other items which can be purchased with Honor points.